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TOPSTORIESen-caSun, 2 Aug 2015 18:26:56 EDTSun, 2 Aug 2015 18:26:56 EDTCopyright Toronto Star 1996-2013 , http://www.thestar.com/termshttp://www.thestar.com60TORONTO STARhttp://www.thestar.com/etc/designs/thestar/images/general/thestar_250x40.pnghttp://www.thestar.com/feeds.topstories.full.rss
Stephen Harper launches federal election for Oct. 19http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/08/02/federal-election-called-for-oct-19.html
77688f03-9121-4ee1-9994-3e41812c3dd8Sun, 2 Aug 2015 10:27:00 EDT<img src="http://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/canada/2015/08/02/federal-election-called-for-oct-19/harper-podium.jpg"><br/><p>OTTAWA&#x2014;Canadians will go to the polls Oct. 19 as <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/federal-election.html">Conservative Leader Stephen Harper kicked off a marathon election campaign Sunday</a> that he painted as a &#x201c;critical&#x201d; decision on the future of the country.</p><p>Crossing the street from his residence at 24 Sussex, Harper arrived at Rideau Hall just before 10 a.m. to meet with Governor General David Johnston and ask that <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/08/02/prime-minister-stephen-harper-to-visit-rideau-hall-to-trigger-federal-election.html">Parliament be formally dissolved</a>.</p><p>Twenty minutes later, he emerged, confirmed that the 42nd election was underway and laid out his case for re-election to Canadians, saying the fall vote would be a test of which party can provide leadership on the big issues of the economy and security.</p><p>&#x201c;A national election is not a popularity contest,&#x201d; Harper said.</p><p>Saying the global economy remains &#x201c;uncertain and unstable,&#x201d; Harper said that managing the Canadian economy remains the top priority for the Conservatives.</p><p>While not naming the other parties, he said now is not the time for &#x201c;reckless economic schemes.&#x201d;</p><p>&#x201c;I think our plan has proven itself,&#x201d; he said, boasting about the Conservatives&#x2019; &#x201c;low-tax plan.&#x201d;</p><p>The Conservatives&#x2019; campaign slogan is &#x201c;Stephen Harper: Proven leadership for a strong Canada.&#x201d;</p><p>At twice the length of recent campaigns, <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/federal-election.html">this election</a> will be the longest in modern Canadian history and likely the costliest.</p><p>But Harper tried to justify the early election call, charging that the other leaders were already on the campaign trail and because of that, it was necessary to get all the parties operating under the same rules that kick in once the election is underway.The contest will pit the Conservative leader, a political veteran <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/08/02/stephen-harper-gunning-for-history-books-in-bid-for-historic-fourth-win.html">gunning for a rare fourth straight election win</a>, against NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair, an experienced Quebec politician <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/08/02/how-the-ndp-hopes-to-convince-canadians-its-their-time.html">hoping to make history as the first NDP prime minister</a>, and <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/08/02/election-2015-justin-trudeau-seeks-to-prove-detractors-wrong.html">Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau</a>, seeking to turn around the fortunes of the once mighty Liberal party.</p><p>Mulcair launched his campaign with a two-fold message: that Canadians want a change from the Harper Conservatives, and that he is the leader voters should choose to replace him because he has the most experience, shares their values and the best ideas.</p><p>&#x201c;I want to speak to every Canadian who thinks Mr. Harper&#x2019;s government is on the wrong track, to every Canadian who is looking for change in Ottawa,&#x201d; Mulcair said Sunday morning from outside the Museum of History in Gatineau, Que., overlooking Parliament Hill.</p><p>&#x201c;I believe that governing is about priorities. Mr. Harper&#x2019;s priority is to spend millions of dollars on self-serving government advertising and an early election call. My priority is to invest in affordable, quality childcare, to help families and the economy,&#x201d; said Mulcair before going on to list some of his highlighted promises, including more protection for the environment and a better relationship with indigenous peoples.</p><p>The NDP campaign slogan is &#x201c;Ready for Change&#x201d;.</p><p><a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/08/02/ndp-leader-thomas-mulcair-takes-no-questions-at-campaign-launch.html">Mulcair took no questions from reporters</a> after delivering his speech.</p><p class="bc-secondary-video" data-video-id="4393983913001"></p><p>Trudeau is scheduled to speak later in Vancouver. </p><p><a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/08/02/election-2015-elizabeth-may-focuses-on-bc.html">Green Party Leader Elizabeth May</a> will speak in her riding on Vancouver Island.</p><p>It won&#x2019;t be long before those four leaders square off &#x2013; the first debate of the election happens Thursday in Toronto, presented by Maclean&#x2019;s magazine.</p><p>While the date of the election was known, thanks to fixed election date legislation, <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/08/02/election-2015-long-campaign-has-risks-rewards.html">the launch of the campaign comes weeks earlier than expected</a>.</p><p>This campaign &#x2013; ringing in at more than 70 days &#x2013; will span the weeks from the summer heat and BBQ circuit to the autumn chill and fall fairs. At twice the length of recent campaigns, it also promises to test the attention span of Canadians.</p><p>Still, this election promises to be one for the history books, whatever the outcome. Will Canadians vote to return Harper and his Conservatives to government in a rare, fourth straight election win? Will they cast their ballots for a first-ever NDP government? Or will the Liberals rebound from their time in the political penalty box?</p><p>At the very least, the Oct. 19 election will certainly bring new faces to the House of Commons. That&#x2019;s partly because dozens of MPs are not running again. But also this vote will see the election of 30 additional MPs &#x2013; bringing the total to 338 &#x2013; as new seats are added to the Commons to account for population changes.</p><p>The Conservatives head into the campaign with 159 seats, the New Democrats 95, and Liberals 36. The Bloc Quebecois, Green Party and Forces et D&#xe9;mocratie had two seats apiece. There were eight independent MPs and four vacant seats. </p><p><b>MORE AT THESTAR.COM</b></p><p><a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/08/02/election-2015-long-campaign-has-risks-rewards.html">Election 2015: Long campaign has risks, rewards</a></p><p><a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/08/02/election-2015-offers-a-political-dynamic-never-before-seen-tim-harper.html">Election 2015 offers a political dynamic never before seen: Tim Harper</a></p><p><a href="http://www.thestar.com/projects/2015/05/electoral-boundaries-canada.html">Canada&#x2019;s federal electoral district map</a></p>
Bruce Campion-Smith - Ottawa Bureau, Les Whittington - Ottawa Bureau reporter, Joanna Smith - Ottawa Bureau reporterPrime Minister Stephen Harper holds a press conference Sunday after visiting Governor-General David Johnston to dissolve parliament and trigger an election campaign at Rideau Hall in Ottawa.Justin TangTHE CANADIAN PRESSPrime Minister Stephen Harper arrives with his wife Laureen at Rideau Hall to meet with Governor General David Johnston and asking that Parliament be dissolved, triggering an election campaign, in Ottawa on Sunday, August 2, 2015.FRED CHARTRANDTHE CANADIAN PRESS<a rel="author" href="http://www.thestar.com/authors.campion_smith_bruce.html">Bruce Campion-Smith</a>Ottawa Bureau<a rel="author" href="http://www.thestar.com/authors.whittington_les.html">Les Whittington</a>Ottawa Bureau reporter<a rel="author" href="http://www.thestar.com/authors.smith_joanna.html">Joanna Smith</a>Ottawa Bureau reporterNDP Leader Thomas Mulcair takes no questions at campaign launchhttp://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/08/02/ndp-leader-thomas-mulcair-takes-no-questions-at-campaign-launch.html
36a78ec8-2b8d-4cc0-aaa5-f3be2a7ae7e1Sun, 2 Aug 2015 12:28:00 EDT<img src="http://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/canada/2015/08/02/ndp-leader-thomas-mulcair-takes-no-questions-at-campaign-launch/tom-mulcair-election.jpg"><br/><p>GATINEAU, QUE.&#x2014; New Democrat Leader Thomas Mulcair walked away without taking any questions from the media after delivering his <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/08/02/federal-election-called-for-oct-19.html">campaign speech</a> across the river from Parliament Hill.</p><p>&#x201c;It&#x2019;s just a statement for today,&#x201d; NDP senior campaign adviser Brad Lavigne said following the speech Sunday morning when asked why the party leader, who polls suggest is within reach of becoming the next prime minister in the Oct. 19 election, refused to answer any questions.</p><p>&#x201c;Thanks, we&#x2019;ll see you soon,&#x201d; Lavigne said after he was again asked to explain why that was the case.</p><p>The NDP is entering this federal election campaign in a very different position than ever before and the decision not to risk overshadowing a tightly scripted message&#x2014;a stump speech read from a teleprompter &#x2013;is one sign that they will handle things differently too.</p><p>Mulcair was the only party leader who did accept questions after his speech.</p><p>Conservative Leader Stephen Harper, notorious for how rare he is available to media, took five questions from reporters outside Rideau Hall Sunday morning.</p><p>Those questions had conditions, though: the questions were restricted to those media outlets that have agreed to go on tour with the Conservatives, at a cost of $12,500 a week.</p><p>Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, who launched his campaign in Vancouver several hours after the other two, was prepared to answer more questions than the seven reporters there had for him.</p><p>&#x201c;Unlike the other guys I tend to take a lot of questions,&#x201d; Trudeau said, pointedly, although there have been days when that was not the case.</p><p>Karl B&#xe9;langer, principal secretary to Mulcair, sent a statement by email Sunday to explain the choice.</p><p>&#x201c;The NDP leader took questions basically every day, two three times a day, for the past two weeks. Today, &#x200e;Tom Mulcair delivered a strong message for change, offering Canadians a plan focused on helping middle class families get ahead,&#x201d; B&#xe9;langer wrote.</p><p>Mulcair was available to media often, both at press conferences and individual interviews, throughout his <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/07/23/ndp-leader-thomas-mulcair-tries-to-win-over-ontario.html">eight-day campaign-style tour</a> of southwestern and northern Ontario in July, and again in New Brunswick last week.</p><p>Another sign things have changed was the decision, announced Friday, to not participate in any <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/07/31/tom-mulcair-wont-debate-without-stephen-harper-present.html">debates</a> unless other political party leaders, including Harper, are there too.</p><p>That means Mulcair will likely not end up taking part in the debate organized by the consortium of broadcasters, which has always drawn the biggest audiences, because Harper has already declined to attend.</p><p>With files from Bruce Campion-Smith</p>
Joanna Smith - Ottawa Bureau reporterNDP Leader Tom Mulcair launches his campaign at the Museum of History in Gatineau, Que.,PATRICK DOYLETHE CANADIAN PRESS<a rel="author" href="http://www.thestar.com/authors.smith_joanna.html">Joanna Smith</a>Ottawa Bureau reporterElection 2015: Long campaign has risks, rewardshttp://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/08/02/election-2015-long-campaign-has-risks-rewards.html
69ea9c8a-0d85-4a4a-a225-f1f2e652e1cdSat, 1 Aug 2015 23:56:00 EDT<img src="http://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/canada/2015/08/02/election-2015-long-campaign-has-risks-rewards/federal-party-leaders.jpg"><br/><p></p><p>Prime Minister Stephen Harper&#x2019;s decision to trigger a <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/07/29/stephen-harper-expected-to-call-election-as-early-as-sunday-report.html">marathon campaign</a> plays to Conservative strengths but flirts with danger, political observers say. </p><p>The 11-week race allows Harper to deploy the party&#x2019;s massive financial war chest, but it&#x2019;s a bold move to put a 9-year-old government in the shop window from the dog days of summer to the brisk nights of autumn. </p><p>An <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/08/01/harper-headed-to-rideau-hall-expected-to-trigger-election-campaign.html">advisory from the Prime Minister's Office late Saturday night</a> said Harper is scheduled to meet with Governor General David Johnston at 10 a.m. Sunday. That visit is expected to trigger an election.</p><p>&#x201c;There are risks for the prime minister and the Conservatives in a long campaign,&#x201d; warned Ottawa consultant and strategist Bruce Anderson of Anderson Insight, who said the Liberals and NDP bring &#x201c;more new ideas&#x201d; to tempt voters.</p><p>&#x201c;If there&#x2019;s one idea on trial in an election it&#x2019;s the incumbent. Observing what he&#x2019;s done hasn&#x2019;t made more people decide they want more of him. He&#x2019;s got to find a way to make change seem too scary.&#x201d;</p><p>That effort is well underway, with a steady blitz of Conservative ads portraying Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau as &#x201c;just not ready.&#x201d; </p><p>&#x201c;They&#x2019;ve marked up the Liberals, now they&#x2019;ll move to the NDP,&#x201d; said Marcel Wieder of Aurora Strategies in Toronto. &#x201c;We haven&#x2019;t had much of a response from either of them. It means they&#x2019;re trying to conserve their cash.&#x201d;</p><p>Anti-Mulcair attack ads are being readied for broadcast.</p><p>Conservative commentator Tim Powers says the early call catches the opposition off guard, allows the Tories to define the campaign issues on their terms and woo swing ridings crucial to the final result on Oct. 19. </p><p>&#x201c;If the campaign started after Labour Day, it would be more difficult,&#x201d; Powers, vice-chairman of Summa Strategies, said.</p><p>He sees the extended race as an attempt to blunt the <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/07/31/half-of-canadian-voters-back-ndp-liberal-coalition-poll-shows.html">momentum of the NDP</a>, which leads in many of the polls, and turn up the scrutiny on the party&#x2019;s leader, who, like Trudeau, in his first national campaign. This is Harper&#x2019;s fifth. </p><p>&#x201c;If Tom Mulcair is the prime minister in waiting, well, he&#x2019;s going to have a longer period of time to go through the full job interview,&#x201d; Powers said.</p><p>But there could be backlash if opposition parties succeed in portraying Harper&#x2019;s early call as what Anderson dubbed an &#x201c;ethically grey&#x201d; and bare-knuckle use of election laws for partisan advantage.</p><p>&#x201c;It&#x2019;s blatantly unfair,&#x201d; said Alice Funke of PunditsGuide.ca, which analyzes elections. &#x201c;It&#x2019;s basically saying &#x2018;we can&#x2019;t win any other way.&#x2019; &#x201d; </p><p>Although the Conservatives enjoy a 2-1 advantage in financing over the opposition parties, money doesn&#x2019;t always buy love.</p><p>The governing Alberta Conservatives had a five-fold advantage in fundraising this year, but Jim Prentice, who was premier, still lost to the NDP, said Prof. Nelson Wiseman, who teaches politics at the University of Toronto. </p><p>&#x201c;If there&#x2019;s a strong wind for change it doesn&#x2019;t much matter.&#x201d;</p><p>The long campaign &#x2014; it&#x2019;s more than twice the usual five weeks &#x2014; also leaves more time for a &#x201c;wild card&#x201d; to influence the campaign.</p><p>In 2006, in the middle of an extended 55-day federal campaign that straddled the Christmas holiday, the RCMP unexpectedly revealed it had launched a criminal investigation into the Liberal government&#x2019;s recent policy decision on income trusts.</p><p>Paul Martin&#x2019;s Liberals were subsequently defeated by Harper&#x2019;s Conservatives.</p><p>&#x201c;Things can often turn on a dime,&#x201d; Wiseman said.</p><p>In a similar vein, a longer campaign leaves more time for gaffes, by either the leaders or candidates, that can be exploited by rivals.</p><p>But that is an equal risk for all parties with Harper having the upper hand because of his experience, Wieder said, noting Trudeau has been prone to slips.</p>
Rob Ferguson - Queen's Park Bureau, Bruce Campion-Smith - Ottawa BureauFederal party leaders, clockwise from top left: Stephen Harper (Conservatives); Elizabeth May (Green); Thomas Mulcair (NDP); Justin Trudeau (Liberals)Canadian Press File Photos<a rel="author" href="http://www.thestar.com/authors.ferguson_rob.html">Rob Ferguson</a>Queen's Park Bureau<a rel="author" href="http://www.thestar.com/authors.campion_smith_bruce.html">Bruce Campion-Smith</a>Ottawa BureauVerdict in Mohamed Fahmy retrial postponedhttp://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/08/02/verdict-in-mohamed-fahmy-re-trial-postponed.html
ce583867-4a1b-4317-b660-0a2fc3f39c7eSun, 2 Aug 2015 09:25:55 EDT<img src="http://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/canada/2015/08/02/verdict-in-mohamed-fahmy-re-trial-postponed/nic6473671.jpg"><br/><p></p><p></p><p>CAIRO&#x2014;An Egyptian court has again postponed announcing the verdict in the case of Canadian<a href="http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2015/06/22/mohamed-fahmy-im-a-pawn-in-a-geopolitical-game.html"> Mohamed Fahmy </a>and two other <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2015/05/15/mohamed-fahmy-lawsuit-latest-round-in-al-jazeeras-world-of-troubles.html">Al Jazeera</a> English journalists &#x2014; this time to Aug. 29.</p><p>It was the latest of several postponements in the long-running legal saga that has been criticized worldwide by press freedom advocates and human rights activists, and a frustrated Fahmy reacted by tweeting &#x201c;The audacity and continuous disrespect to our rights is unprecedented.&#x201d;</p><p>Fahmy, Australian journalist<a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2015/02/04/freed-al-jazeera-reporter-peter-greste-returns-home-to-australia.html"> Peter Greste </a>and Egyptian producer Baher Mohammed were detained in December 2013 while working for the Doha-based Al Jazeera network.</p><p>The three were initially sentenced to prison before Egypt&#x2019;s highest court ordered a retrial on charges alleging they were part of the Muslim Brotherhood, which authorities have declared a terrorist organization, and airing falsified footage intended to damage Egypt&#x2019;s national security.</p><p>Egypt deported Greste in February, while Fahmy and Mohammed were later released on bail.</p><p>Fahmy&#x2019;s brother, Adel, told The Canadian Press from Cairo that this latest postponement of the verdict has added to the suffering of not only his brother, but the entire family.</p><p>&#x201c;I know he&#x2019;s suffering very much, and not able to sleep well, or eat well. And now he has a teaching job at UBC in British Columbia starting in September and you know his whole life, and ours, has been crippled,&#x201d; he said.</p><p>Adel Fahmy said no official reason was given for the postponement &#x2014; that the judge who usually presides over the case didn&#x2019;t show up today and that another judge came in and simply announced, without explanation, that the verdict had again been delayed.</p><p>Mohamed Fahmy&#x2019;s lawyer in Vancouver, Joanna Gislason, was clearly disappointed by the court&#x2019;s action, and also at a loss to explain it.</p><p>&#x201c;It&#x2019;s hard to understand why everyone would have been dragged back to court today, when presumably this would have been known by the court. The lives of these men are hanging in the balance, and it&#x2019;s just torturous for them to have to wait in this way,&#x201d; she said.</p><p>Throughout the proceedings Fahmy has pointed out that his case had been complicated by politics in the Middle East, referring to himself as a &#x201c;pawn&#x201d; in a rift between Egypt and Qatar, which owns Al Jazeera.</p><p>Egypt and Qatar have had tense relations since 2013, when the Egyptian military ousted Morsi amid massive protests.</p><p>Qatar is a strong backer of Morsi&#x2019;s Muslim Brotherhood and Cairo accuses Al Jazeera of being a mouthpiece for Morsi&#x2019;s supporters &#x2014; charges denied by the broadcaster.</p><p>The Canadian government has said it has raised Fahmy&#x2019;s case with Egyptian officials &#x201c;at the highest level&#x201d; and called for his immediate return to Canada ahead of Thursday&#x2019;s verdict.</p><p>Fahmy moved to Canada with his family in 1991, living in Montreal and Vancouver for years before eventually moving abroad for work, which included covering stories for the New York Times and CNN.</p><i><p><b>With files from The Associated Press</b></p></i>
The Canadian PressAl-Jazeera journalist Canadian Mohamed Fahmy talks to media outside the Torah prison in Cairo on Aug. 2, 2015.KHALED DESOUKIAFP/GETTY IMAGESThe Canadian Press16-year-old girl stabbed by extremist at Jerusalem gay pride parade dieshttp://www.thestar.com/news/world/2015/08/02/16-year-old-girl-stabbed-by-extremist-at-jerusalem-gay-pride-parade-dies.html
7ba34847-660b-4c55-b4fa-3c5d969af515Sun, 2 Aug 2015 11:32:47 EDT<img src="http://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/world/2015/08/02/16-year-old-girl-stabbed-by-extremist-at-jerusalem-gay-pride-parade-dies/482683204.jpg"><br/><p></p><p>JERUSALEM &#x2014; A teenage girl seriously wounded after an anti-gay extremist stabbed her and several others in last week&#x2019;s attack on Jerusalem&#x2019;s gay pride parade died Sunday, a hospital official.</p><p>Shira Banki, 16, succumbed to her wounds, and her organs will be donated, Hadassah Medical Center spokeswoman Hadar Elboim said.</p><p>The girl was among six people wounded Thursday by an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man, Yishai Schlissel, who had carried out a similar attack on a gay pride parade in 2005. He had angrily spoken out against the parade after his release from prison three weeks earlier.</p><p>The parade was proceeding as planned, with party music, Israeli flags and rainbow-clad marchers wending their way through central Jerusalem, when the attacker lunged into the march, stabbing people with a long-bladed knife before being apprehended by police.</p><p>Jerusalem, known for its rich religious history and tradition, holds a modest parade annually in contrast to the large parade in nearby liberal Tel Aviv, which drew over 100,000 people this year.</p><p>A majority of Jerusalem&#x2019;s residents are observant Jews, Muslims or Christians, conservative communities whose members mostly frown on homosexuality. But violent attacks on gays are rare.</p><p>Previous parades in the holy city have drawn opposition and threats.</p>
Associated Press Israelis and members of the gay community attend an anti-homophobia rally on August 1, 2015 in Jerusalem, Israel.Lior MizrahiGETTY IMAGESAssociated PressMaple Leafs, Bernier reach deal on extensionhttp://www.thestar.com/sports/leafs/2015/08/02/the-toronto-maple-leafs-have-signed-goaltender-jonathan-bernier-to-a-two-year-contract-extension.html
708fe577-51e6-4ca2-a12c-8bda1083a90fSun, 2 Aug 2015 13:39:37 EDT<img src="http://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/sports/2015/08/02/the-toronto-maple-leafs-have-signed-goaltender-jonathan-bernier-to-a-two-year-contract-extension/jonathan-bernier.jpg"><br/><p>The Toronto Maple Leafs have signed goaltender Jonathan Bernier to a two-year contract extension.</p><p>Terms of the deal weren't released.</p><p>The two sides went to arbitration Friday but a deal was worked out before a ruling was handed down.</p><p>The Leafs had been asking the arbitrator to give Bernier a one-year deal worth $2.89 million, a 15 per cent cut in pay from the $3.4 million the goalie earned last year and the lowest offer allowed under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement.</p><p>In response, Bernier was asking for $5.1 million on a one-year deal.</p><p>Bernier, 26, has posted a goals against average of 2.78 and a .918 save percentage in two seasons with the Maple Leafs after arriving in a trade with the Los Angeles Kings on June 23, 2013. In 175 career NHL games (158 starts), the Laval, Quebec native owns a record of 76-67-20 with a 2.63 goals against average, a .916 save percentage and nine shutouts. Bernier was originally selected by Los Angeles with the 11th overall pick in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft.</p>
Star StaffLeaf goalie Jonathan Bernier snakes a hard shot out of the air for a nice save on April 11, 2015.Rick MadonikToronto StarStar StaffUnrefunded fees at centre of immigration disputehttp://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/08/02/unrefunded-fees-at-centre-of-immigration-dispute.html
96e810e9-41a5-40e5-86c7-94484862fd69Sun, 2 Aug 2015 10:19:07 EDT<img src="http://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/gta/2015/08/02/unrefunded-fees-at-centre-of-immigration-dispute/erlinda-maravillas4.jpg"><br/><p>Bebiang Merry Tobes claims that she is owed thousands of dollars by a woman who she says illegally collected fees from her to find work for her relatives as live-in caregivers.</p><p>In March 2013, Tobes says, she gave Erlinda Maravillas $8,000 to produce labour market impact assessments and employment contracts for her two nieces and a nephew through the temporary foreign worker program, but the documents never materialized.</p><p>She is one of many in the Filipino-Canadian community in Toronto who believe they were duped by Maravillas and want their money back. </p><p>Approached outside her North York apartment building while entering her recently purchased 2006 BMW X3, Maravillas admitted to collecting recruitment fees, which employers are required by law to cover, from applicants&#x2019; families until 2013<i>. </i></p><p>Charging caregivers, instead of employers, for placement has been illegal since 2009 with a penalty of a fine of up to $50,000 and up to a year in jail. </p><p>&#x201c;I used to do it,&#x201d; said Maravillas, who ran Lynn&#x2019;s Local and International Placement Agency from 1999 to 2014. &#x201c;But no more.&#x201d;</p><p>Maravillas said she&#x2019;s lost count of how many people she&#x2019;s helped bring their relatives into the country, as live-in caregivers, from such countries as the Philippines, Saudi Arabia and Israel. </p><p>She has not collected any recruitment fees from would-be caregivers or their families in the past two years, she says. </p><p>&#x201c;These employers who I always help, they call me because I don&#x2019;t charge,&#x201d; Maravillas said. &#x201c;I don&#x2019;t charge the employer. I didn&#x2019;t charge them even 5 cents.&#x201d;</p><p>&#x201c;The thing is, the employer will not pay,&#x201d; said Maravillas, explaining why she didn&#x2019;t charge employers the recruitment fees instead, as the law stipulates. </p><p>To hire a foreign caregiver, prospective employers need a positive labour market impact assessment, which demonstrates the need to hire a worker from abroad instead of from within Canada. </p><p>In December, the cost of an LMIA application increased to $1,000 from $275. Employers are also required to advertise the position on websites like Monster and Workopolis to prove there&#x2019;s a shortage of Canadians to fill it.</p><p>A year-and-a-half after she handed Maravillas $8,000 in cash, Tobes said, there was no evidence that any progress had been made on the application.</p><p>Maravillas said, however, that Tobes didn&#x2019;t wait long enough before cancelling her application, which takes many months to process. </p><p>When Tobes asked that her money be returned, Maravillas made incremental payments until October, bringing the balance down to $6,650, and then started ignoring her calls, Tobes said.</p><p>&#x201c;I keep calling her and texting her, sometimes bad words because I&#x2019;m upset,&#x201d; said Tobes, who is also a caregiver. &#x201c;She doesn&#x2019;t respond.&#x201d;</p><p>&#x201c;I&#x2019;m stressed for a long time,&#x201d; she said. &#x201c;It&#x2019;s big money for me. I work hard.&#x201d;</p><p>Maravillas said she doesn&#x2019;t answer the phone sometimes because she has reception issues, but denied staying out of touch on purpose. Since speaking with the Star, she has reached out to Tobes and promised to return her money.</p><p>Maravillas, who now makes her living as a cleaner and babysitter, said reimbursement has always been her intention, but thus far she&#x2019;s been unable to save up enough to repay Tobes in full.</p><p>In another case, Luisa Bucauyu said she gave Maravillas $2,500 to bring her nephew to Canada from the Philippines in 2012.</p><p>&#x201c;After that, I kept calling her to remind her about the papers and she told me it was being processed,&#x201d; Bucauyu said. &#x201c;But now I&#x2019;ve lost contact with her.&#x201d;</p><p>When they spoke about a year ago, Maravillas told her the employer she had lined up for Bucauyu&#x2019;s nephew had backed out and decided to put their elderly parents in a nursing home instead, Bucauyu said. </p><p>And Luciel Sy says she gave Maravillas $1,700 in the fall of 2012 to find an employer for her fianc&#xe9;, who she had hoped would join her in Canada.</p><p>&#x201c;She promised to bring him here and find an employer for him,&#x201d; said Sy, whose fianc&#xe9; now lives in Qatar. &#x201c;She took the money, and she&#x2019;s gone.&#x201d;</p><p>&#x201c;I have been calling her a million times, and she promised me that she was doing it, but then she said the elderly man passed away,&#x201d; Sy said.</p><p>Maravillas said Sy and Bucauyu also cancelled their applications in the middle of the process, but since being approached by the Star, she&#x2019;s also contacted them to say she will repay them in August, both parties confirm. </p><p>Tobes, Sy and Bucauyu are not the first people to raise concerns about the legitimacy of Maravillas&#x2019;s business.</p><p>In August 2014, a Metro story outlined the experiences of five other people, three of them identified and two who spoke without being named, who reported similar issues.</p><p>Documents show that Maravillas was taken to small claims court twice in 2014. In both cases, women claimed that they had paid fees &#x2014; in 2011 and 2012 &#x2014; for help in finding employment for their relatives, but that at the time they filed their claims, no work had been done. </p><p>One claim was abandoned. A contempt hearing for the other has been set for Thursday. </p><p>Maravillas has been named as a defendant in 10 other small claims cases between 2003 and 2010, but the Star could not confirm the outcome of those. </p><p>Lynn&#x2019;s, Maravillas&#x2019;s former company, is defunct, she said. A business called ESM Recruitment Agency was registered in 2014 under her name, but Maravillas said she&#x2019;s done making money through recruiting. </p><p>Maravillas initially said she had proof of the work she did on Tobes&#x2019;, Bucauyu&#x2019;s and Sy&#x2019;s applications. Later, though, she then said she could not find Tobes&#x2019; paperwork, and that the rest must have been destroyed when her apartment was flooded in the summer of 2014. </p><p>She said the money she earned from her business, which she ran full time until 2014, was sent back to the Philippines to help her father, who was ill. </p><p>Police wouldn&#x2019;t say whether they&#x2019;re investigating Maravillas. A statement from Citizenship and Immigration Canada said that privacy laws prevented it from speaking about individual cases.</p><p>The Canadian Border Services Agency, which investigates complaints and tips about the contravention of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, wrote in an email that &#x201c;it is not a practice of the CBSA to confirm/deny whether a person is under investigation.&#x201d;</p><p>The Ministry of Labour, which would normally investigate violations of the Employment Standards Act and the Employment Protection for Foreign Nationals Act (EPFNA), has not received any complaints against Maravillas. </p><p>In 2009, after a Star investigation uncovered widespread fraud in the live-in caregiver program, the Ontario government passed the EPFNA, which made charging caregivers a recruitment or placement fee to work in the province illegal. </p><p>Maravillas said she thought the law had changed more recently. </p><p>She said recruiting was easy before the law was so strict and insisted that she no longer charges for it, but continues to help employers through the process. They rely on her, she said, because she doesn&#x2019;t charge them for her services. </p><p><i>With files from Dale Brazao</i></p>
Tamara Khandaker - Staff ReporterErlinda Maravillas, who took placement fees from several Filipinos wanting to bring their family members to Canada, says she no longer does that. Charging foreign workers placement fees to find them jobs in Ontario has been illegal since Placement fees have been illegal since 2009.Dale BrazaoToronto Star<a rel="author" href="http://www.thestar.com/authors.khandaker_tamara.html">Tamara Khandaker</a>Staff ReporterExtreme sports facilities track, but don't report, injurieshttp://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/08/01/extreme-sports-facilities-track-dont-report-injuries.html
bff48ba1-d2c5-43a7-91b0-92168aec12c4Sat, 1 Aug 2015 20:11:21 EDT<img src="http://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/gta/2015/08/01/extreme-sports-facilities-track-dont-report-injuries/photo-ci-extreme-folo.jpg"><br/><p>Extreme sports facilities throughout the GTA and surrounding area have differing approaches to on-site injury tracking, but a Star survey of a dozen businesses in the region found a common thread: they won&#x2019;t share that data with the public.</p><p>The Star asked various facilities, including ski and snowboard resorts, mountain bike parks, indoor bike parks and rock climbing centres, about whether each facility tracks on-site customer injuries, how they use the data, and if they would be willing to release injury data to the Star.</p><p>Many said they do track injuries internally and use the data for safety purposes such as re-evaluating programs, analyzing risk management and improving facilities. </p><p>But several businesses declined to comment &#x2013; and none of the responding facilities agreed to release their full injury data.</p><p>&#x201c;That does not surprise me,&#x201d; said Patrick Brown, a Toronto-based critical injury lawyer who has <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/07/14/extreme-sports-facilities-not-required-to-report-injuries.html">raised red flags</a> about the lack of regulation of Ontario&#x2019;s extreme sports facilities, which are not required to report customer injury data to the government or public.</p><p>&#x201c;Even when you commence lawsuits against these facilities, they still try to prevent you from accessing that information,&#x201d; Brown said. &#x201c;It&#x2019;s a bit of a cat-and-mouse game. Generally, without court orders, you don&#x2019;t get access to it.&#x201d; </p><p>Various facilities did stress their commitment to safety for their customers.</p><p>At Toronto&#x2019;s True North Climbing, owner John Gross said the facility tracks on-site injuries &#x201c;very carefully,&#x201d; including completing an incident report for any injury serious enough to end a climber&#x2019;s session and following up with every injured customer to understand the severity of their injury.</p><p>&#x201c;We keep an eye on this information to see if there are any trends, or any indication that there is an increase in injuries that might need a response,&#x201d; Gross said. </p><p>&#x201c;For example, if we saw a rash of injuries in one location of our facility, we would look to see if there was something wrong in that area.&#x201d; (This hasn&#x2019;t happened in the more than five years the facility has been operating, he added.)</p><p>Gross said he thinks it&#x2019;s not appropriate to share the rock climbing facility&#x2019;s detailed injury data and called it &#x201c;private business information.&#x201d; He did note that the facility&#x2019;s rate of serious injury &#x2013; defined as a broken bone or worse &#x2013; is 1.01 per 20,000 hours of participation. </p><p>&#x201c;We do not submit our injury data to any governing body because we are not aware of any that apply to our industry,&#x201d; Gross said. &#x201c;We do share all incident reports with our insurance company, so they are up to date on this.&#x201d;</p><p>Karen McGilvray, owner of the Rock Oasis, which operates indoor climbing gyms serving Toronto and Ajax, said the company does track injuries and &#x201c;near misses,&#x201d; and uses the data to improve the facilities and systems.</p><p>&#x201c;We do not submit the data to anyone; no one requires it,&#x201d; she said. &#x201c;I am unable to share injury data as my insurance company considers it confidential.</p><p>As for ski resorts, Mark Rutheford, general manager at Brimacombe ski resort in Orono, Ont., said the resort tracks injuries internally and submits them to a national database run by insurance companies. </p><p>Brown expressed concern over the role played by insurance companies at various facilities. </p><p>&#x201c;Risk management shouldn&#x2019;t always be driven by an insurance company,&#x201d; he said. &#x201c;An insurance company&#x2019;s goal is to prevent lawsuits. &#x2026; The first thing they always do is waivers, warnings, to protect the facility from being sued instead of making the facility safe.&#x201d;</p><p>Rutheford had a different take. &#x201c;As far as our industry goes, we&#x2019;re very risk-management minded,&#x201d; he said. &#x201c;As a facility, we&#x2019;re not in the business to hurt people; we&#x2019;re in the business to give people a recreational opportunity to have fun, so we want to mitigate any risks our patrons might face.&#x201d;</p><p>Brimacombe&#x2019;s accident rates are &#x201c;quite low,&#x201d; he added, with fewer than 300 reported or documented incidents in a season and about 150,000 to 155,000 skier visits a year.</p><p>At Glen Eden &#x2013; the third largest resort in Ontario, with more than 328,000 visitors in the 2014-15 season &#x2013; all injury incidents are tracked. </p><p>&#x201c;As we capture personal details, we are not able to share this data without the consent of the individuals,&#x201d; said Niall Lobley, manager of risk and land holdings services for Conservation Halton. </p><p>The incident rate at Glen Eden is dropping despite a growing number of visitors, he added. &#x201c;The past season saw our rates drop to just below 1.6 per 1000 visits,&#x201d; Lobley said, and explained an &#x201c;incident&#x201d; is anything that requires a patroller&#x2019;s attention, ranging from a simple fall to more significant injuries.</p><p>Snow Valley ski resort in Barrie also keeps records of on-site injuries, according to general manager John Ball, but &#x201c;does not publish, share, or post&#x201d; the records.</p><p>As the Star <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/07/14/extreme-sports-facilities-not-required-to-report-injuries.html">reported recently</a>, Blue Mountain Ski Resort, which features mountain bike trails as well, also tracks every detail of on-site injuries and uses the data on an &#x201c;ongoing basis&#x201d; to increase safety and reevaluate programs, but does not made the information public or report it to any governing body.</p><p>At Hardwood Ski and Bike in Oro-Medonte Township, president and general manager Jack Sasseville said, &#x201c;We do track injuries internally, we do not report them to any other body and we are not interested in sharing them with the Toronto Star.&#x201d;</p><p>Several other local facilities &#x2013; including Climber&#x2019;s Rock, an indoor rock climbing facility in Burlington, Joy Ride 150, an indoor bike park in Markham, and Toronto Climbing Academy, an indoor rock climbing facility &#x2013; declined to comment on the Star&#x2019;s questions about on-site injury tracking. </p><p>&#x201c;I think the reasons are obvious: they don&#x2019;t want people to know,&#x201d; Brown said.</p><p>Representatives for Horseshoe Resort, an all-season mountain resort in Barrie, and Joe Rockhead&#x2019;s, an indoor rock climbing facility in Toronto, could not be reached for comment.</p>
Lauren Pelley - Staff ReporterJohn Gross, owner of True North Climbing, is an advocate for safety at his facility and has a process to help keep track of any on-site injuries to climbers.Brian B. BettencourtToronto Star<a rel="author" href="http://www.thestar.com/authors.pelley_lauren.html">Lauren Pelley</a>Staff ReporterTories describe Mulcair as self-serving ‘career politician’ in latest attack adshttp://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/08/01/tories-launch-anti-mulcair-attack-ads-on-eve-of-federal-election-call.html
c1348e29-d8ff-4b6b-9b43-e38fe683591eSat, 1 Aug 2015 20:26:59 EDT<img src="http://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/canada/2015/08/01/tories-launch-anti-mulcair-attack-ads-on-eve-of-federal-election-call/mulcair.jpg"><br/><p></p><p>OTTAWA&#x2014;The Conservatives are finally training their sights on NDP Leader Tom Mulcair just as Prime Minister Stephen Harper is about to plunge the country into an 11-week election on Sunday.</p><p>After carpet-bombing the airwaves for weeks with ads asserting that Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau is &#x201c;just not ready,&#x201d; the ruling party is poised to start the official campaign with two new television ads targeting Mulcair.</p><p>The ads portray the NDP leader as an unethical opportunist who looks out for himself at taxpayers&#x2019; expense, a &#x201c;career politician&#x201d; the country can&#x2019;t afford.</p><p>The new ads feature the same group of supposedly ordinary Canadians perusing resum&#xe9;s who trash Trudeau&#x2019;s work history in the ubiquitous &#x201c;just not ready&#x201d; ads, only this time it&#x2019;s Mulcair&#x2019;s resum&#xe9; that&#x2019;s being dissected.</p><p>The Tories have been running the Trudeau attack ads relentlessly, long after opinion polls suggested Liberal support had sagged into third place, largely to the benefit of the NDP, which heads into the campaign with a slim lead over the Conservatives.</p><p>Liberal strategists say they believe the Tory obsession with Trudeau reflects the fact that the Liberals remain the biggest threat to Conservatives in the crucial suburban swing ridings ringing Toronto, where all three parties agree the Oct. 19 election will be won or lost.</p><p>However, the Conservatives have apparently decided it&#x2019;s time to burst the NDP&#x2019;s bubble, although it remains to be seen whether they&#x2019;ll run the anti-Mulcair ads with the same frequency as the anti-Trudeau ads.</p><p>The Conservatives offered a &#x201c;sneak peek&#x201d; at their new anti-Mulcair ads in a fundraising email missive sent out to supporters late Friday.</p><p>In the email, the Tory campaign spokesman, Kory Teneycke, asserts that the NDP &#x201c;would wreck our economy,&#x201d; that Mulcair&#x2019;s &#x201c;dangerous schemes would mean higher taxes for all Canadians and would drive us back into deficit.&#x201d;</p><p>Yet the ads the email is promoting don&#x2019;t mention the economy or Mulcair&#x2019;s policies. They focus squarely and personally on Mulcair.</p><p>The panellists perusing the NDP leader&#x2019;s resum&#xe9; note that Mulcair was first elected to Quebec&#x2019;s National Assembly in 1994 &#x2014; &#x201c;as a Liberal,&#x201d; one of the group says in a shocked voice.</p><p>&#x201c;Hmm, he&#x2019;s no fresh face,&#x201d; comments another.</p><p>One ad recounts that the NDP has been &#x201c;caught breaking the rules by directing $2.7 million of taxpayers&#x2019; dollars to their <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/02/24/alleged-ndp-misuse-of-taxpayer-dollars-could-be-turned-over-to-police.html">political offices</a>.&#x201d; And it recalls a decades-old libel suit in which Mulcair was ordered by a judge to pay $100,000 &#x201c;for malicious and abusive behaviour,&#x201d; a tab the ad asserts he wanted taxpayers to pay.</p><p>&#x201c;Politicians like him never care when it&#x2019;s our money,&#x201d; one man grouses.</p><p>The other ad recounts how Mulcair, as a provincial politician, was once offered a bribe by a &#x201c;disgraced Quebec mayor,&#x201d; which he didn&#x2019;t accept but also didn&#x2019;t report to police for 17 years. It also claims that Mulcair joined the federal NDP only &#x201c;after he cashed out his $135,000 severance,&#x201d; to which he was entitled after retiring from provincial politics.</p><p>&#x201c;Looks out for himself,&#x201d; comments one of the group.</p>
Joan BRYDEN - The Canadian PressNDP Leader Tom Mulcair speaks in Waterloo, Ont., on Friday, July 24, 2015.Hannah YoonTHE CANADIAN PRESSJoan BRYDENThe Canadian PressLocal rapper Redway among four people killed in separate car crasheshttp://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/08/01/two-crashes-leave-four-people-dead-overnight.html
f0b7e90c-22e5-4e28-a962-52aa514517e3Sat, 1 Aug 2015 08:23:00 EDT<img src="http://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/gta/2015/08/01/two-crashes-leave-four-people-dead-overnight/shane-redway.jpg"><br/><p>Up-and-coming local rapper Shane Redway was among three people killed in a fiery, single-vehicle crash near Pearson International Airport early Saturday morning.</p><p>The crash occurred just after 4 a.m. on the Highway 427 northbound ramp to the 401 westbound, where the OPP says, for unknown reasons, a northbound vehicle veered off the highway and hit the right guardrail.</p><p>The vehicle burst into flames after the crash and witnesses rushed to the scene in an attempt to rescue the three people trapped inside. They got one out, the OPP said, and performed CPR on the woman until paramedics arrived.</p><p>The two people trapped inside the vehicle were pronounced dead on the scene, while the woman was rushed to hospital with life-threatening injuries, where she later died.</p><p>Police haven&#x2019;t confirmed the identities of victims, but believe the two people trapped inside the car were a male driver and female passenger. OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt said confirming the identities has been challenging because the bodies are badly burnt. </p><p>The OPP closed the ramp for several hours for investigation following the crash. Police are still investigating what factors may have led to the crash and subsequent fire.</p><p>Redway was among those killed in the crash, his management company CHAMP Management confirmed to the Star.</p><p>&#x201c;Redway was known for being a passionate artist who was always striving for greatness, pushing the boundaries of always believing in your visions &amp; dreams which led to the creation of the BLVD (The Belief Leading Visions &amp; Dreams),&#x201d; the company said in an email statement.</p><p>Toronto rappers Drake and Kardinal Offishall both sent out condolence messages on social media.</p><p>&#x201c;RIP young Redway. He was on his way to greatness. Everybody only had amazing things to say. Gone too soon. God bless his fam and friends,&#x201d; Kardinal Offishall tweeted.</p><p>&#x201c;Gone way too soon. Just saw this guy yesterday at Bounce. RIP Redway,&#x201d; Drake wrote in a post on Instagram.</p><p>Redway and his music have been <a href="http://noisey.vice.com/en_ca/blog/redway-toronto-rapper-years-ahead-interview">featured</a> in several <a href="http://exclaim.ca/Music/article/redway-years_ahead">publications</a>, and news of his death triggered an outpouring of grief on social media, with the hashtag #RIPRedway becoming the top Twitter trend in Toronto. </p><p>A <a href="http://www.gofundme.com/3u9htkdbc">GoFundMe campaign</a> has been set up to help pay for Redway&#x2019;s funeral.</p><p>Anyone with information or who saw the collision is asked to call the Toronto OPP detachment at (416) 235-4981.</p><p>In an unrelated collision around a half hour later, a cyclist was killed on Dufferin St. south of Teston Rd. in Vaughan.</p><p>York Regional Police say that a male cyclist was struck by a vehicle around 4:30 a.m., and pronounced dead at the scene.</p><p>The driver of the vehicle remained at the scene.</p><p>Dufferin St. was closed from just north of Major Mackenzie Dr. W. to Teston Rd. for a police investigation until early Saturday afternoon.</p>
Sean Wetselaar - Staff Reporter, Jackie Hong - Staff ReporterShane Redway was killed in a car crash early Saturday, his management company confirmed.FacebookThe crash occurred on the Highway 427 northbound ramp to the 401 westbound, where the OPP says, for unknown reasons, a northbound vehicle veered off the highway and hit the right guardrail.Andrew CollinsAndrew Collins<a rel="author" href="http://www.thestar.com/authors.wetselaar_sean.html">Sean Wetselaar</a>Staff Reporter<a rel="author" href="http://www.thestar.com/authors.hong_jackie.html">Jackie Hong</a>Staff ReporterWynne changes course, gives PC leader chance to run in early byelectionhttp://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2015/08/01/wynne-changes-course-gives-pc-leader-chance-to-run-in-early-byelection.html
d9066449-5e9f-4f3a-a60d-16e3cc74066aSat, 1 Aug 2015 17:45:41 EDT<img src="http://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/queenspark/2015/08/01/wynne-changes-course-gives-pc-leader-chance-to-run-in-early-byelection/brown.jpg"><br/><p>PENETANGUISHENE, ONT.&#x2014;Premier Kathleen Wynne is about to call a byelection that will give the leader of the Opposition a chance to seek a seat in the Ontario legislature.</p><p>Wynne said during an appearance in Penetanguishene on Saturday that she would call the byelection in Simcoe North next week for Sept. 3.</p><p>The announcement saw Wynne change course after recently rejecting Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown&#x2019;s request for an early byelection in the riding.</p><p>Wynne initially said she would wait until after the Oct. 19 federal election campaign was over, but now says she doesn&#x2019;t want to stand in the way of Brown&#x2019;s willingness to contest a byelection during a federal writ period. Prime Minister Stephen Harper is expected to set the Oct. 19 federal election campaign in motion Sunday.</p><p>On July 22, veteran Simcoe North Tory MPP Garfield Dunlop announced that he would step aside on Aug. 1 so the new PC leader could run.</p><p>Brown wrote an open letter to Wynne urging her to schedule the byelection in August so he could be in the legislature in time for the fall session.</p><p>He resigned his seat in Parliament as the MP for Barrie after he won the provincial PC leadership in May, and Wynne said at the time she would call a byelection &#x201c;as soon as he can find a riding&#x201d; in which to run.</p>
The Canadian PressConservative MP Patrick Brown gives his farewell speech in the House of Commons in Ottawa, Wednesday, May 13, 2015.Sean KilpatrickTHE CANADIAN PRESSThe Canadian PressMeet Neelesh Misra, the Garrison Keillor of Indiahttp://www.thestar.com/news/world/2015/08/02/meet-neelesh-misra-the-garrison-keillor-of-india.html
7d9af274-26e3-4656-b415-797f0d527921Sun, 2 Aug 2015 07:00:00 EDT<img src="http://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/world/2015/08/02/meet-neelesh-misra-the-garrison-keillor-of-india/neelesh-misra.jpg"><br/><p>NEW DELHI&#x2014;Every weeknight, millions of Indians tune their radios to the mellifluous voice of Neelesh Misra spinning tales of a vanishing way of life in a fictional Indian town.</p><p>He calls it Yaad Sheher, or Memory Town, a place on the cusp of change where people are leaving behind extended families and backyards with tamarind trees for boxy, new city apartments.</p><p>As India&#x2019;s rapid urbanization pushes people from small towns and villages in search of new jobs and opportunities, centuries-old family rituals are rapidly fading. And Misra&#x2019;s daily show called <i>The Idiot Box of Memories</i> is helping to keep the nation&#x2019;s dying storytelling tradition alive, while easing the path between growing aspirations for the new and nostalgia for the old life many have left behind.</p><p>More than 42 million listeners &#x2014; 14 times the audience of <i>A Prairie Home Companion</i> &#x2014; tune in to hear Misra&#x2019;s hugely popular tales that have earned him the endearing moniker &#x201c;the Pied Piper of Indian radio.&#x201d; Cab drivers instantly recognize his voice, and fans have told him that they circle the block in their cars just to hear how a story ends.</p><p><b>Related stories at thestar.com:</b></p><p><a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2015/07/27/aarushi-talwar-murder-case-revelations-cause-uproar-in-india.html">Aarushi Talwar murder case revelations cause uproar in India</a></p><p><a href="http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2015/07/25/chaotic-and-imperfect-is-it-the-great-indian-novel.html">Chaotic and imperfect, is it the Great Indian Novel?</a></p><p><a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2015/07/07/can-narendra-modis-tweets-really-help-his-countrys-women.html">Can Narendra Modi&#x2019;s tweets really help his country&#x2019;s women?</a></p><p>Misra, a 42-year old Bollywood songwriter and an editor of a rural newspaper, is Indian radio&#x2019;s Garrison Keillor. And Memory Town is his Lake Wobegon.</p><p>&#x201c;There was a time when the elders in our families used to tell stories to children. But we are all leading very busy and insulated lives now. Even the grandparents are busy with their cellphones, and sharing jokes on WhatsApp,&#x201d; Misra said in an interview. &#x201c;We are using radio to revive the rich tradition of oral storytelling and scrape the dust off our urban lives.&#x201d;</p><p>The radio program, which began in 2010 with just 33,000 listeners, is now in its fourth season and runs for a little over an hour, with 14 minutes of storytelling interspersed with eight Bollywood songs. The show airs on commercial stations in 45 cities, 1,200 towns and 50,000 villages.</p><p>Behind the microphone, Misra narrates what he calls India&#x2019;s &#x201c;everyday stories&#x201d; &#x2014; about the aspirations of Indian youth, the building of a new highway, a son confronting his corrupt father, a husband learning to cook, and a new bride adjusting to an arranged marriage with a stranger.</p><p>&#x201c;Neelesh Misra is like a cult figure now,&#x201d; said Ashwin Padmanabhan, executive vice president of Reliance Broadcast Network, which runs the Big FM station. &#x201c;Our listeners feel these are stories about real people around them from their very own neighbourhoods.&#x201d;</p><p>&#x201c;Your stories are like my maa&#x2019;s story, which she used to tell me in my childhood,&#x201d; one listener wrote to Misra last month.</p><p>Misra&#x2019;s radio stories are also heard on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/YaadonKaIdiotbox">YouTube</a> and Facebook and can be downloaded on a smartphone. </p><p>In India, &#x201c;leaving home&#x201d; is a universal theme of the country&#x2019;s narrative these days, as universal as love is, Misra said.</p><p>&#x201c;The protagonists in his stories are often from some other place. There is a lot of mixing up of people in our cities now,&#x201d; said Padmanabhan.</p><p>One of his most popular stories is called &#x201c;Diwali ki raat&#x201d; (or &#x201c;The Night of Diwali Festival&#x201d;) &#x2014; a tale of a busy, jet-setting executive who has to spend the night of the festival holiday away from his parents&#x2019; home because he has to make a PowerPoint presentation to an American company via video conference call.</p><p>Hindi advocates are happy that the show is reviving the language in an era of spoken &#x201c;Hinglish,&#x201d; a blend of Hindi and English. Most radio announcers speak this way.</p><p>&#x201c;Hinglish is the language of the incompetent because it is spoken by Indians who are not very good in either Hindi or English,&#x201d; said Ashok Chakradhar, a renowned Hindi poet and former vice chair of Hindi Academy. &#x201c;This radio program is an important contribution to reviving spoken Hindi that is not corrupted by English.&#x201d;</p><p>A few months ago, Misra asked listeners to contribute to the climax of his stories. Soon, listeners began calling in to offer their own.</p><p>Now, Misra has begun to crowdsource stories from listeners by mentoring writers&#x2019; clubs in cities and shepherding thousands of their stories before reading them on air.</p><p>At a recent gathering of writers in Delhi, some read aloud to him &#x2014; stories about a mother&#x2019;s old school uniform, children climbing mango trees, crowded train journeys and yearning for the perfect pair of gold earrings.</p><p>&#x201c;He does not allow any mention of cigarettes, alcohol or anything gloomy or macabre &#x2014; nothing that will leave a bad taste in the listeners&#x2019; minds,&#x201d; said Shabnam Gupta, who has contributed 10 stories in the past year for the program. &#x201c;The show opens up an alternate world where good does exist and has not been overtaken by material greed.&#x201d;</p><p>Although poignant, the stories in Memory Town almost always end on a positive note. And that is deliberate.</p><p>&#x201c;We are not documenting the real India here,&#x201d; Misra said. &#x201c;In our stories, the bad guy will never get away free. I make sure that people are not left feeling defeated.&#x201d;</p>
Rama Lakshmi - The Washington PostNeelesh Misra's popular stories about a fictional town in India have earned him the nickname “the Pied Piper of Indian radio.”
Gaurav GuptaTHE WASHINGTON POSTRama LakshmiThe Washington Post